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Incident at Seven Oaks

The Passing Parade

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Cuthbert Grant
The HBC flag
Musket from the 1800's
Governor Semple
The Seven Oaks monument
Muskets firing
Musket balls
The HBC coat of arms plaque
Typical HBC outpost building

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Who really fired the first shot?

History is want to call it a massacre, on a sunny day in 1816 on a grassy plain five miles north of The Forks. Although many accounts disagree on how many combatants were there is immaterial. Both sided were armed. The Hudson's Bay Company men were out manoeuvred by Cuthbert Grant and his Metis warriors. Let me explain.

A musket has to be tediously reloaded after firing. Cuthbert Grant's men fell to the ground after discharging their muskets, they laid on their backs in the grass and reloaded. The HBC men led by Governor Semple thought wrongly that they had killed Grant's men, and began to cheer. Where upon the Metis men rose and killed fifteen of the HBC men including Governor Semple. Why did this confrontation happen? Who fired the first shot is immaterial.

To understand how this footnote in Canadian history happened, we have to go back to the founding of the Hudson's Bay Company in 1670. The British Empire controlled 1/4 of the World's population. From Rhodesia to Australia, to North America to India. They were a mercantile empire with riches flowing to England. At this time furs were a very popular item of apparel for the nouveau riche. Various enterprises out of Quebec were making fortunes. The British wanted in. So, they persuaded the King to give them a Royal Charter to trade exclusively in Rupertsland. Literally all of Western Canada and the North West territories. They were to go in through the Hudson Bay, set up their base at York Factory, then travel 500 miles up the Nelson River to Lake Winnipeg. Next another 300 miles to the mouth of the Red River, then on to the Forks on what is now present day Winnipeg.

The fact that the Indigenous people had occupied this land for thousands of years, did not enter into the HBC equation. Furs was what they wanted. The Hudson's Bay Company built a series of Forts called Houses. Norway House and many others are examples. The Buffalo was a walking grocery store, it supplied fur for clothing and meat to sustain the population. This meat once smoked and mixed with berries would keep a brigade of Traders and helpers well fed. Of course, the HBC assumed control over the people, becoming both judge and jury in order to keep the precious flow of pelts to Europe. Many other traders and settlers hearing of these riches made their way to what was called the Red River settlement. These settlers wanted land, which was what the HBC gave them without consulting with the Indigenous people. The rival North West Company around 1800, started challenging the authority of the HBC monopoly. Many skirmishes were fought. Many Metis joined the North West Company as a way of protecting their lands. The Indigenous people supplied the North West Company with Pemmican. To thwart this rival, the Hudson's Bay Company thru Governor Semple, decreed no Pemmican was to be sold to anyone but the HBC. This so called Pemmican war brought hardship to the Indigenous people, so they ignored this edict. This, plus the arrival of the Selkirk settlers in 1812, only compounded a simmering land dispute.

In fact, on the day of the Incident at Seven Oaks, Cuthbert Grant and his men were transporting a load of this life saving commodity to the North West Company fort, west of Winnipeg. Governor Semple heard of this, and marched with his armed men to intercept Cuthbert Grant. The rest, as they say is history. Unfortunately the high handedness of the Hudson's Bay Company, and subsequently the Canadian Government to fully resolve the Indigenous concerns has resulted 200 years later, in these claims still not being resolved.

Ken Kristjanson

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